Building a Personal Brand and Business during a Pandemic: The PR Shoppe’s Founder Carolyn Fraser

In this episode of Restarting America, Josh Gibbs from 97 Switch interviews Carolyn Fraser, the founder and CEO of The PR Shoppe. Throughout the interview, they discuss the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on business and society. Fraser shares how the current health pandemic has affected her company and how she is adapting to new circumstances.

Over her 15+ years as a strategic communications practitioner, Fraser has led winning integrated marketing campaigns for some of the top brands in the world, including Revlon, Visa, BET Networks & Black Girls Rock!, Laila Ali & ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, Maytag/Whirlpool, Ernst & Young and CURLS.

In 2016, Fraser married her passion for marketing and mentorship and founded an online empowerment platform to help entrepreneurs and small business owners strengthen their ‘mental grit’ and better hold themselves accountable to success. In 2020, she was honored for her own successes, as she received the Young Entrepreneur of The Year Award from the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), Chicago chapter.

Fraser has a B.A. in Business Administration with a minor in Communications Studies from The University of Missouri – Kansas City. She has completed several professional development courses, including a hard-earned Crisis Communications certificate from Northwestern University’s School of Communications, and course completion for the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth’s Building a High-Performing Minority Business, and Goldman Sachs 10K Small Businesses programs.

She is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity, National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.